Denon DP-300F turntable review

Read the experts' verdict on the Denon DP-300F budget turntable

The Denon DP-300F is fully automatic, an increasingly rare feature amongst budget turntables making a play for the serious audiophile, but we have to say it: as people who grew up with music centres in the 1970s, there's a certain kind of nostalgic magic to watching a tonearm move through the air without any assistance, before dropping quietly onto that blue vinyl edition of ELO's Out Of The Blue.

If that makes the Denon DP-300F sound old-fashioned, fear not, for this turntable is a sleek beast indeed, with a metallic black finish that'll ensure it looks at home in any listening room, or on the flight deck of a modern spacecraft.

But what do the experts make of it? Our colleagues at Techradar have given the DP-300F a proper seeing-to.

What Techradar Say...

If you’re just heading out of the road to vinyl nirvana and don’t want to deal with complicated things like tracking weight and anti-skate setup, the Denon DP-300F is a pretty good companion. You’ll sacrifice some sound quality for convenient features, but you can always swap the cartridge later for a better sound (the turntable's tonearm is plastic, but the headshell is really easy to replace, so upgrading is a doddle).

The sound quality isn't fantastic, but if your amp and speakers aren't high-end you'll probably be happy, and the main joy of the Denon DP-300F is the ease of operation.

"If all you want is to listen to your records and not have to worry about queueing, premature needle wear or digitizing your records, the Denon DP-300F should be at the top of your list," say Techradar.

"Its features get you listening to your vinyl records as soon as possible instead of having to fiddle with complicated components and manual queueing… just don’t expect it to sound as good as some other manual, entry-level turntables like the AT-LP120-USB or Pro-Ject Debut Carbon"